Here's what you need to know; in the years following their victory over Mechagodzilla, Godzilla and Kong are living their own lives in their own separate domains, with Godzilla patrolling the surface world and keeping the Titans in line, while Kong ventures deeper and deeper into the unknowns of the Hollow Earth in search of more of his kind. But hidden within the Hollow Earth are secrets best left buried, and as Monarch begins to detect a mysterious signal and Jia begins to have strange visions, an ancient evil trapped in the Hollow Earth readies to make it's move on the surface world, leaving Kong and Godzilla with no choice but to join forces to stop it before it can spread it's empire across the entire globe.
Godzilla vs Kong was released almost exactly three years ago, and I'd have normally been really excited for it and would have gone to see it on opening weekend. However, every cinema in my country was closed down when the film released, meaning I had to rent it on digital and make do with my own shoddily put together home cinema. I always felt that Godzilla vs Kong lacked some of the spark of the previous two Godzilla entries of the Monsterverse, though I still found the film to be very enjoyable and did a lot of things right. I sometimes wonder if not seeing it in a cinema was part of the problem, and so going into it's sequel, I was optimistic that I'd find that spark I was looking for before. I was still in little doubt that I'd enjoy the film however, my question going in was; is it good or is it great, and having seen it twice on it's opening weekend, I at least feel that I've found my answer.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which I'll be referring to as GXK for most of the review for all our conveniences, starts just as strong as its predecessor, giving us another day-in-the-life sequence with Kong as he is chased by some Hollow Earth wolf monsters. Meanwhile, on the surface, Dr. Andrews, Rebecca Hall's character from the last film, is doing talks and making TV appearances talking about Kong and Godzilla, who we then see turn Scylla from King of the Monsters into crab meat before taking a nap in the Roman Colosseum. This film really doesn't waste any time at all, giving us some strikingly violent and gruesome monster action in the first few minutes, setting the tone for the rest of the film. Godzilla vs Kong knew full well that it's main selling point was Godzilla and Kong fighting, and GXK takes this to a whole new extreme, having the biggest focus on the monsters of any film in this series which, as I'll get to, is a good thing, albeit with a catch. But whereas GVK followed two teams on separate adventures that come together in the end, GXK wisely narrows the human cast down to a single team; Andrews, Jia, Bernie and newcomer Trapper, who go down into the Hollow Earth to investigate the mystery signal. There's not much going on with our humans, but this is Godzilla so there doesn't need to be.
Andrews and Jia still have their cute mother-daughter thing going on, which gets complicated in this film when they discover the Iwi tribe in the Hollow Earth and Andrews worries that Jia will decide to stay with them. Bernie is every bit as entertaining as he was in GVK, equal parts excited, overgrown child and crazed conspiracy nut who has Playmates GVK toys in his studio and still hosts his Titan Truth Podcast, only now with sponsors. GXK gives him someone to bounce off of in Trapper, a new character to this series who is by far the film's most entertaining human character. He is introduced through having him pull out one of Kong's teeth to the soundtrack of I Got'cha by Greenflow, sporting sunglasses and a Hawaiian shirt while dangling precariously over Kong's gaping mouth. The character gives off strong Ace Ventura vibes for the entire film, even being mockingly called Ace Ventura at one point, and there are countless moments with him that just make you smile and chuckle, he's just fun, and he fits like a glove into this film's whacky, stylish tone. Like in most of the films in the Monsterverse, the human characters are not key players, but this film strips back their screen time more than any other in the series, focusing far more heavily on Kong's adventure into the Hollow Earth and his battle with the Scar King. GXK rarely goes more than a few minutes before catching back up with either Godzilla or Kong, and the Kong sequences in the film often continue uninterrupted for several minutes.
What's really pleasantly surprising about this is that even without human characters to provide context or exposition, the story is very well told and easy to understand, the monsters have conversations with each other and while they're just growling and snarling, their conversations are clear enough, and these moments in the film are by far the most charming moments, even occasionally being funny. Where this is at it's strongest is with the three main apes of the film; Kong, Suko and the Scar King. Suko has a very funny and cute relationship with Kong in the film, starting out antagonistic before slowly becoming more trusting and loyal, and even coming to Kong's aid at several points. On the complete opposite end is the film's villain, the Scar King, who is a fantastic villain. like Kong, Scar King is an intelligent and highly skilled combatant, packing a gnarly bone whip as his main weapon, but where the two differ is in just about every other area. Kong is a hulking, imposing figure, but is calm, compassionate and righteous, he treats his fellow apes with respect and decency, even if they try to kill him, while Scar King is a lanky bastard that gleefully mistreats his subjects, he's cruel and sadistic and keeps himself on top through fear, grinning and laughing as he controls and tortures his underlings, he is everything Kong is not, a dark reflection that makes for a fascinating and deliciously evil foil.
And on top of being a sadistic arsehole with an army of giant apes under his command, he has a secret weapon; Shimo. Like Scar King, Shimo is a new monster to this series, and as Scar King is our anti-Kong, Shimo is our anti-Godzilla in a lot of ways. A massive, albino dragon with dazzling blue crystals jutting out of her head and back, and an ice beam attack that can freeze everything it touches completely solid. While nowhere near as intelligent as Kong or even Godzilla, she makes up for it in two key areas; one, having all of Godzilla's physical strengths, near invulnerability and an unstoppable beam attack, and two, she is completely under Scar King's control. Like the apes of his tribe, Shimo is shown to be just another victim of Scar King, a benevolent Titan that he keeps as a pet, forcing her to do his bidding using a magic crystal. The conflict between Kong and the Scar King is clearly where the thought and effort in this film went, and is undeniably very well done, but I said earlier that there was a catch, and unfortunately, it's not a small catch for me. Despite being on the poster and having his name in the title, Godzilla is very much in the back seat in this film, being less of a key player and more of a supporting character. And for as brilliant as everything to do with Kong is, Godzilla feels like an afterthought in comparison, with the film only cutting back to him every now and again when it remembers he's supposed to be in it. That's not to say there aren't cool moments with Godzilla, there's a scene where he attacks a nuclear power plant that is very reminiscent of classic Toho Godzilla.
There's also an adorable moment early on when he scares away a news helicopter that's flying too close to him, which comes immediately after the equally adorable moment of him waking up from his nap in the Colosseum. From the moment that him and Kong meet up again, the film is none stop kaiju carnage with Godzilla kicking all kinds of ass, but it's disappointing to me, as a Godzilla fan, to see how small of a presence he has in this film, and I wish they did more with him. Godzilla essentially spends the first two thirds of the film bulking up in the background, and this soured my first viewing, though it was less of an issue on my second viewing, having already had my expectations checked on the first viewing. On the plus side, his new design works quite well, the bright pink is certainly a unique look that fits nicely into the film's colourful and whimsical visual style. But once Godzilla and Kong meet back up, I can almost forgive how little they use Godzilla as from that point on, the Big Guy is finally side by side with Kong, and the film delivers the promised team-up in spades. We'll get to the fights later, but there are a few more monsters in this film that need addressing. Scylla returns from King of the Monsters, but is immediately killed, Final Wars style by Godzilla in the film's intro, and Tiamat, a monster from the Monsterverse comics makes an equally brief appearance, also getting a Final Wars style execution before Godzilla steals her power and becomes Pinkzilla.
But the Monster I was most surprised by in GXK was Mothra, a monster who had been rumoured to be in the film for months, and I was worried about how she would be used in the story. Well the rumours were true, Mothra makes her grand return to this series and to my pleasant surprise, she is as glorious as she was in King of the Monsters, an angelic and benevolent Titan who is positioned in this film as a guardian monster to the Iwi and the Hollow Earth portals, and her design and colours really get a chance to pop in this film, as does her personality and her relationship to Godzilla. There is a great scene in this film that's very reminiscent of a scene in Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster, where Mothra shows up and breaks up Godzilla and Kong's fight, calling on Godzilla to join them in fighting the Scar King, and just like earlier in the film with Kong and the Scar King, no words need to be said for us to understand what's going on, and it's kind of funny to think that Godzilla basically gets a telling off from Mothra before being convinced to join them. That, of course, is our entry point into the film's finale, where everything goes completely insane and the film becomes an almost completely uninterrupted kaiju wrestling match. And the final battle of this film, in addition to being insane, does things that no Godzilla film has done before, and is dazzlingly choreographed and stylishly directed, making for what's almost certainly the most entertaining monster battle in this series.
If you wanted to see Godzilla and Kong in a tag team battle, this film definitely delivers in it's finale, as the two kings throw their opponents around and get thrown around in kind. And to have the first round of the fight take place in zero gravity is not only ridiculous, but completely awesome, and I never expected to see Godzilla hopping around in zero gravity, getting assists from Mothra as he floats angrily in the direction of his foe. GXK is very much a monster driven film, and in that regard, it's a contender for best in the series with how inventive and fun its fights and storytelling are. It's been said a lot already, but it really is true, that this film feels like a Showa Godzilla film; it's a stylish, inventive and way over the top monster movie where fun comes before everything else, and the film is undeniably a lot of fun. Like those Showa films, GXK's monsters are dripping with personality and charm and get to do some crazy shit, to hell with collateral damage. In that, if you go in expecting Godzilla Minus One, and come out disappointed that you got Godzilla vs Megalon instead, you're the problem, not the film, and that's the one time I'm mentioning Godzilla Minus One in this review. But like all Monsterverse films, GXK is not perfect; I've already mentioned how the film disappoints with how it uses Godzilla, but there are other issues that hold the film back.
While criticising the story in a kaiju film is like criticising a porno for the same reason, there are a hand full of conveniences and contrivances in the film, and like with all the Monsterverse films, these issues are exclusively human issues. For example, it's mighty convenient that the power glove they need to help Kong just happens to be stored at the outpost right next to the Iwi settlement, in it's conveniently not destroyed secret armoury, and it's mighty convenient that it fits the hand that it needs to fit. Or how about another, the Iwi need to summon Mothra, but no one in their settlement can do it, it needs to be an Iwi from Skull Island, and there conveniently happens to be one left, and she just so happens to be in our party, and the telepathic Iwi knew about her and were sending psychic signals to her so she could come down and wake up Mothra. The Godzilla franchise is no stranger to these kinds of contrivances, and like with those other films, how much it bothers you depends on how much you let it, and in a film where big monkeys kick the shit out of each other in zero gravity and a big dinosaur has a nap in the Colosseum, aspects of the story being contrived seems rather insignificant, the absurdity is clearly a feature, not a bug. There is a bigger issue I have with GXK, and its an issue I also had with GVK.
Like Kong: Skull Island and GVK before it, GXK's music choices are consistently on point, with bangers such as Turn Me Loose by Loverboy, Twilight Zone by Golden Earring, and I Was Made For Lovin' You by Kiss, but unfortunately, like those two films, its soundtrack leaves something to be desired. After Alexandre Desplat and Bear McCreary's god tier soundtracks for the first two Godzilla films, Junkie XL's scores for GVK and this film feel kind of bland and unremarkable, though the film's inclusion of Mothra without the inclusion of Mothra's song really highlights this issue. There is a hint of Mothra's song in Junkie XL's score for her, but when put up against McCreary's version of the song, it's pathetic. Like his score for GVK, Junkie XL's music just isn't as thematically rich as McCreary's or as intense as Desplat's, and doesn't compliment the action as well, which isn't even to say it's bad, it's just a soundtrack that does its job, whereas Desplat's and McCreary's soundtracks were beasts all their own, they were part of the magic. And like GVK before it, GXK strips back the thematic elements that the Monsterverse started with, we are now a long way away from a living God awakening to humble humanity and restore balance. Does that really matter in an over the top kaiju film though, or is it enough to just sit back and watch the madness, I'd personally say it is; it's a bonus when Godzilla is deep, heavy and thematic, but a Godzilla film that's completely unchallenging, that exists to just be a big, silly, fun movie is only bad if it fails to be fun, and GXK is really fun. When approaching Godzilla in general, you have to judge the film for what it is and what it does right, rather than criticising it for not being something it never tried to be in the first place, and while there are problems with the film, it's on the viewer as to whether those problems are big enough to spoil the fun, and I honestly don't think they are.
You Can't Have A Titan With A Tooth Ache
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a fun film, it's big and colourful and stylish, it's silly and occasionally contrived, I have my issues with how the film uses Godzilla and how the film's soundtrack underwhelms, but the question at the end of the day is was it a good time, and that's a definite yes. The film is nothing new for the Godzilla franchise, though it does mix things up with some genuinely unique and creative monster sequences. The film does make the mistake of side-lining one of it's title monsters in favour of telling a very Kong-focused story, but that story is the heart and soul of this film; Kong's journey to find his people and his conflict with the Scar King is fantastic, and the Scar King is a fantastic and wonderfully hateable villain that makes a perfect foil for Kong. The film's other monsters all deliver the goods as well, with Mothra being as wonderful as ever, and newcomers; Suko and Shimo each getting their moments to be charming, tragic and ultimately very lovable. And while I'm disappointed by how little Godzilla there is in this film, he still delivers as he always does in the film's ridiculous finale. The monster story is well complimented by the human story, and Trapper and Bernie have some great moments that keep the human story entertaining until we can get back to the monsters which, just like in Godzilla vs Kong, is where the film hits it's stride. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is an unchallenging monster mash that confidently does what it sets out to do, and never strives to be more than what it is, it's a great time and it's definitely worth watching.
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